Experimental Study of the New Type of HTS Elements for Current Leads to be Applied to the Nuclear Fusion Devices

This paper describes new kind of HTS (High Temperature Superconducting) element for current leads, which can transfer large electric current in the nuclear fusion system. Since the HTS tapes have no resistance and the generated Joule heat is also very small compared to the conventional current leads, cooling costs of the current leads can be reduced. For this reason, the various feasibility researches for HTS current leads have been promisingly progressed in the superconducting power applications. However, there is a limitation on the capability of current carrying for single HTS tape. In addition, the cross-sectional area of the current leads should be small enough to minimize the heat conducted through the HTS current leads. In order to improve the current carrying capacity of the current leads, multiple HTS tapes are required. In this paper, we proposed several structures of compact HTS current leads and compare them other 2 kA class current leads. We report on the calculated characteristics of stabilized HTS current leads and on the performance measured during critical current measurement tests.